Years ago, my brother requested that I create lasagna cupcakes. This was before anyone had ever heard of lasagna cupcakes; a Google search for lasagna cupcakes today will reveal that lasagna cupcakes have been created many times by all manner of food bloggers and chefs. Sadly, I didn’t jump on my brother’s idea – I hadn’t yet embraced the world of savory cupcakes. Now, I regularly make savory cupcakes (see my mac and cheese cupcakes for a recent example), but I still put off making lasagna cupcakes because I tend to avoid making something everyone else is doing – this is supposed to be an experimental cupcake blog.

This week, my mom came to visit from New York and wanted to prepare her family-famous lasagna. I decided that this was the time to try lasagna cupcakes. She was already buying all of the ingredients and doing all of the labor, so all I had to do was ask her to save a few scraps for me to cupcakify. It was an all-around win:

For my mom – she is so excited to see her lasagna recipe have a moment of glory on the blog

For my brother – he finally gets his request fulfilled

For me – I instantly fell in love with these single-serving lasagna cupcakes

For you – maybe you have seen and put off making lasagna cupcakes OR maybe this is the first time you are hearing of them – this is your chance to try them!

I made lasagna cupcakes two ways.

The first way to make lasagna cupcakes is to make more of a traditional layered lasagna but in a cupcake liner. In the second method, I lined the walls of the cupcake liners with lasagna noodles to make a lasagna cup and then filled the innards with lasagna filling. Lasagna purists will probably prefer method one because the noodle to meat sauce ratio is more even. However, using the second method, when you pop the lasagna cupcakes out of the liners, you can actually hold them.

Because either lasagna cupcake method will work with any lasagna recipe (and you may already have one you swear by), I’m going to first go over the two lasagna cupcake techniques and then at the end of this post, I’ll share my mom’s specific lasagna recipe.

Lasagna Cupcakes, Method One

Have all of your lasagna ingredients ready (at the point where you would layer them in your lasagna pan).

After cooking your lasagna noodles, use round cookie cutters to cut the noodles into circles. For each cupcake, I used three circles – a 1 1/2″ circle, a 1 7/8″ circle, and a 2 1/4″ circle. I highly recommend getting a round cookie cutter set – it will have all of the sizes you need.

Start with the smallest size noodle circle and place it in the bottom of your cupcake liner. I recommend using silicone liners for this since paper liners will get soggy. I got these clear ones from Crate and Barrel. Layer the cupcake just as you would the lasagna in a big pan. When it’s time to add the next noodle, use the medium-sized circle. Continue to layer. End with the large circle topped with meat sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Put the filled liners into a baking dish (you can use the same type of dish you would use to bake lasagna). Cover with foil and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another five minutes until the tops are bubbly. Serve warm, refrigerate, or freeze and store for a time when you need a quick snack.

When they are all cooked, they look like this:

Or, if you take them out of their liners, they look like this:

Lasagna Cupcake, Method Two

Like method one, have all of your lasagna ingredients ready (at the point where you would layer them in your lasagna pan).

This time, instead of using cookie cutters and making perfect little noodle circles, you shove a lasagna noodle (or a part of one) into a cupcake liner, letting it run up the sides (as shown above). It’s a big mess and that’s fine.

Next, pour some meat sauce on top. Cover that with one layer of lasagna innards (typically ricotta and mozzarella).

Top with a square of noodle (again, it’s totally imperfect), more meat sauce, and some Parmesan cheese.

Bake the same way as you would method one: Put the filled liners into a baking dish (you can use the same type of dish you would use to bake lasagna). Cover with foil and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another five minutes until the tops are bubbly. Serve warm, refrigerate, or freeze and store for a time when you need a quick snack.

When they’re done, they look like this:

If you take them out of their liners, they look like this:

You can even pick them up and hold them.

My Mom’s Lasagna Recipe

My mom

My mom isn’t Italian, and she doesn’t make the fanciest lasagna. However, she’s made her lasagna recipe for almost every major occasion that I can recall, and each time everyone looks forward to it. We don’t get bored. I took copious notes when she made the lasagna during her visit, and I’m happy to share the secret family recipe with you. More importantly, though, I’m thrilled to have the recipe recorded so I can make it and share it with my loved ones.

My husband would probably raise an eyebrow at me if I served him a lasagna cupcake, but this looks like it would be really great for those situations (such as potlucks) where you want a little more portion control.

These Lasagna Cupcakes look so adorable! It would be so fun to make these for a little dinner party or evening with girl friends. Have you tried any other pasta-like cupcakes? “Cupcakes” with pesto would be great!

I’ve never heard of lasagne cupcakes until now so I’ll reserve the right to say your brother invented them, lol.

They look so cute and inviting. I shouldn’t go through my baking RSS blogs while I’m hungry, it’s not good for me. I love the pic of your mum, she looks so happy. :)

Anything could be baked in cupcake form… Mmmm carbonara! I’m glad I have rainbow coloured silicone cases, I know I can do these too. I just need the cookie cutter set, I only have scalloped ones for now. The cheese looks great on top too.

I did this without the silicone cupcake liners, I just put the noodles and other ingredients straight into the cupcake pan. It turned out alright, probably a little sloppier than yours, though!

Also whoever uses this recipe must be careful with how much sauce and cheese they put. I made the mistake of putting 2-3 scoops of sauce and generous handfuls of cheese when each cupcake only needs 1, 1 1/2 and just a pinch and a half of cheese.

I just made these for my parents’ Christmas party. Instead of Lasagna noodles, I used wonton wrappers. When you bake them, they taste really close to lasagna noodles. Also, it allow these to be finger foods, rather than having to plate them. They were a hit…no leftovers.

Hi! So I’m loving this cupcake lasagne recipe. I’m getting married and for our reception we are making all our own food (we wanted to have a really homey, and family feeling to the night) so inward wondering if you knew how many lasagne cupcakes the filling portion of the recipe makes?